


Stay

by TheWalkingDino



Series: Rickyl one-shots [2]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: After the first Governor attack, Daryl Dixon/Rick Grimes Feels, Daryl makes a good pillow, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, M/M, Rick doesn't want Daryl to leave again, Rick looking after Daryl, prison era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-21
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-09-26 00:18:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9853358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWalkingDino/pseuds/TheWalkingDino
Summary: Set the night after the Governor's first attack on the prison, the attack where Daryl and Merle showed up and saved Rick's ass. Daryl is in Rick's cell and Rick needs him to stay. Daryl is a good pillow.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own The Walking Dead or any of its characters.

“You came back.” Rick’s voice was a whisper. He didn’t want to wake any of the people sleeping in nearby cells. 

“Yeah,” Daryl answered quietly. The light from the lantern cast shadows across his face. “I did.” He was sharpening a knife. The sound of metal sliding against metal and their voices were the only things disturbing the eerie silence in the prison. 

“You saved me.” Rick breathed. 

“Course I did.” Daryl looked up from the knife, turning his attention to Rick. “I’m always gonna be here to save ya.” 

“Yeah.” Rick brought his hand up to the back of his own neck, scratching nervously. “Daryl?” 

“Mhm?” 

“Stay in here tonight. In my cell.” Rick’s voice shook. 

“Why?” Daryl slid the knife back into its sheath. 

“When you left with Merle. I really thought I might never see you again.” Rick placed his hand on Daryl’s arm. “I need you to stay with me, so I can be sure that you won’t go runnin’ off again.” 

“Ya tryna keep me from leavin’?” Daryl asked. “Ya think ya fuckin’ own me?” He hissed. 

“No-no-no-no. I don’t think I own you.” Rick corrected him quickly. “I need this for me. So I can feel… Safe, I guess.” 

“Ya need me ta protect ya? From who, Merle?” Daryl scoffed. 

“No.” Rick tilted his head to the side. “It’s just hard for me to explain. I really need you in here.” 

“We sharin’ a bed too?” Daryl asked sarcastically. 

Rick responded, without missing a beat, “Only if you want to.” 

Daryl’s eyes went wide, searching Rick’s face in the lantern light for a sign on whether he’d been serious or not. The idea of sharing a bed with him was somewhat  _ appealing  _ to Daryl. 

“I’m kidding,” Rick added, after seeing the deer in the headlights look on Daryl’s face. 

“Oh.” Daryl murmured, a little downcast at the revelation. He turned his gaze to the sheet that blocked the cells entrance, staring at it blankly. 

“Wait.” Rick said, “Did you want to?” When Daryl didn’t answer, or even bother to look at him, he pressed one hand against the side of his face, persuading him to look in the ex-sheriff’s direction. “Did you want to?” He repeated. 

Daryl opened and closed his mouth, like a fish, trying to find his words. He was staring into Rick’s eyes, so filled with turmoil, and he was staring right back. He was searching again, but this time he was only searching Rick’s eyes, and he finally saw what he needed to see in those pools of blue.  _ He wanted him to say yes.  _ He nodded his head, closing his eyes and hoping he hadn’t misread the emotion in Rick’s eyes. Hoping he hadn’t misread the hope that he’d seen. He opened his eyes, and his heart skipped a beat because he’d been right. Rick was smiling. Despite everything that had happened that day, he was smiling. 

He fell back onto the mattress, scooting towards the wall until his back pressed against it, and Daryl collapsed beside him, back turned to him. The archer grabbed the lantern from the floor and put the flame out. He was lying on his side, with his bottom arm tucked beneath his head, acting as a pillow. 

Rick had the actual pillow, and felt guilty for not letting Daryl have it, so he poked his back gently, and waited to hear Daryl’s rough voice shattering the silence in the room. 

“What?” He grunted. 

“You can have the pillow. I don’t need it.” Rick shoved the pillow at him. “Lift your head up.” 

Daryl propped himself up on his elbow and he could hear the pillow sliding against the sheet as Rick moved it over. He looked down, and saw the man was fluffing the pillow,  _ fucking fluffing it _ , for him. He would have protested, he would have told Rick to keep the pillow to himself, but he knew that Rick would have fought back too, so when Rick pulled his hands away, the archer flopped back down, resting his head on the fluffed pillow. He rolled onto his back and turned his head in Rick’s direction. “Ya didn’t have to. Now ya ain’t got a pillow.” 

“Doesn’t matter. Want you to be comfortable.” Rick said, and Daryl couldn’t see him, but he could certainly hear the smile in his voice.  _ Of course Rick was worried about his comfort.  _

Daryl would have drifted off to sleep, if he didn’t have to listen to Rick rolling around every two seconds in an attempt to make himself comfortable. If he didn’t have to hear those frustrated sighs when the man’s own arms became too uncomfortable to act as a pillow.  

Then the archer had an  _ idea. _ An idea he hoped wouldn’t land him on Rick’s bad side.  __ “C’mere.” Daryl huffed, reaching his arm under Rick and pulling him closer. “I’ll be yer damn pillow.” 

Rick rolled onto his side, his chest and stomach pressed against Daryl’s side. He slid his bottom arm under Daryl’s back and his top arm to the hunter’s stomach. His head rested on Daryl’s chest, and he sighed happily. He could hear Daryl’s heartbeat, and even after all the beautiful singing he’d heard from Beth, that steady rhythm of Daryl’s heart quickly became his favorite sound in the world. “You make a good pillow.” He yawned, nuzzling his head against the archer’s chest. 

“Thanks?” Daryl whispered, but Rick was already asleep. 


End file.
